Anna writes,
-The translator is almost finished with the next phase of BES translation!
-The Bibletime participants seem to be enjoying the booklets. The group of teens is slowly but surely growing, and I’m encouraged by some who are very consistent.
The acute crisis concerning food insecurity in Malawi is being made worse by the ongoing rains.
Many crops (such as our own – pictured) were flattened by the cyclone winds, and these are now starting to rot / germinate as the rains continue and villagers don’t have the means to store and dry them.
Please pray – it’s clear than this humanitarian crisis is set to become worse and worse.
Wati writes, “The team visited the evacuation camp at Pa Mchenga on 31/03/23. A short gospel message was shared, and some food items were given. We can pray for the families there who all listened attentively.”
The other work is ongoing, Bible studies (kids and adults) Sunday meetings.
We are doing a little more finishing work on the msasa (plastering etc)
Please pray for Anna (and her family) on the homecall of her Papa.
Bereavement is all the more difficult when family are separated, so please pray that all will know special grace during their time of loss.
Anna says, “while we are grieving the loss of him as a special person, we are all so happy he is with the Lord and very much at peace.”
Our efforts to help in the present crisis are being frustrated by continued adverse weather.
Heavy rains are continuing from time to time, resulting in further damage to already difficult roads. On Saturday, we tried to purchase 400 x 25Kg bags of maize flour, but were unable to get them to our storage facility.
Some of the evacuation camps remain very difficult to reach without serious 4×4 capability.
The road to our site at Saidi has been blocked for a couple of days by this vehicle stuck in the mud.
Please pray for an improvement in the weather so that the roads may be passable.
I’m writing this on my return flight from Blantyre, Malawi at the end of my unplanned visit to assess the effects of Cyclone Freddy.
It’s been a short trip on account of the fact that my son, Philip is getting married next week. Over the years, I missed many family birthdays and anniversaries, but I can’t miss that!
I had little idea what to expect as I left N. Ireland around 10 days ago, having hurriedly changed plans to be with the saints in Jordan for Bible teaching.
To be honest, what I found has alarmed me.
On the one hand, I am alarmed to hear seasoned ex-pats who have spent decades in Malawi speak of a catastrophe on a scale they have never witnessed before.
On the other hand I am alarmed that for so many in this country it just seems to be business as usual.
Malawi has experienced many impactful natural disasters. Droughts and famine. Cyclones and floods. Even localised earthquakes, as Malawi straddling the Great Rift Valley. In our 20-something years of experience in Malawi, we have experienced each of these – on more than one occasion. Indeed, Freddy is the third major cyclone to hit Malawi in the past 5 years, following Idai and Ana, not to mention sever others of less intensity.
But nothing like this.
Meteorologists reckon that Freddy may have been to most powerful cyclone on record. Its destructive force was unleashed twice on Mozambique. Freddy made landfall some time earlier before retreating to the Indian Ocean. It then returned to batter the African continent for a second time. Over the weekend of 12 March, Freddy unleashed around 6 months’ worth of monsoon rain in as many days, or less.
It’s not the first time that the low-lying Shire valley and Phalombe plain has flooded. But the effect on Blantyre’s unplanned and over-crowded slum townships is simply unprecedented.
The first funeral I preached at in Malawi was not far from where so many perished because of cyclone Freddy. A young child had drowned after falling into a slum bafa – a communal un-plumbed bathing area. Thousands of homes are piled on top of each other along the sides of the city’s landmark mountains – Soche, Ndirande, and Mchiru. Most have no form of drainage or sanitation.
It was a disaster waiting to happen.
Yet, Malawians have got used to hardship and disaster. It’s a way of life. Or death.
Before 12 March millions of Malawians were already struggling. As they have done to greater or lesser degrees for most of their lives.
Malawi is presently the 11th poorest country in the world.[1]
In August last year, 3.8 million people were expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 – Crisis). Almost 6.5 million others categorised as IPC Phase 2 (Stressed) and at needing help to avoid disaster risk and improve their livliehood protection. Experts were already predicting that 21 of Malawi’s 28 Districts would be struggling with food insecurity between October 2022 and March 2023.[2]
That was before Cyclone Freddy.
The reasons are many.
It is true that Malawi lacks the natural resources that many of our regional neighbours are blessed with. In their place, corruption, nepotism and mismanagement abound.
Lack of opportunities and a culture of jealousy conspire to make Malawi an unlikely place for the capable to succeed. Able young people pursue education and opportunity overseas, and understandably never come back. Thus, the brain-drain dooms Malawi to be led by a succession of people not good enough to make it overseas, but clever enough to cheat their way to comfort at home.
On my recent visit, one long-term resident of Malawi complained angrily, “Nothing works in this country! They’ve stolen everything!”
It’s true. The country’s infrastructure is broken down.
You can’t get a driving license in Malawi because they can’t import the plastic cards. And even more seriously, I couldn’t buy coffee beans because the roastery couldn’t find gas!
I know that doesn’t sound like much of a hardship, but think about the business owner who’s losing coffee sales every day because the country is broken.
Or the business owner who wouldn’t even give me a quotation for an irrigation pump, because he’s embarrassed to contact his supplier for a price, knowing there is no foreign exchange in the country to actually buy the pump if I say yes.
So the demand for coffee beans falls, hurting the coffee growers, and the price of maize goes up, because people like us who would grow food in the dry season can’t – even if we could find fertiliser.
And then came Freddy!
Unfortunately, I can’t give you up-to-date statistics. The authorities seem to be overwhelmed and unable to stay current with the numbers. However, it is safe to say that hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the extensive flooding and mudslides. In our District (Zomba) alone, there are almost 50,000 people living in evacuation camps because their homes were either destroyed or damaged by the cyclone. Many of them are children and elderly. Around half have received no assistance yet, 3 weeks into the crisis. That is partly because of the sheer scale of the catastrophe. And partly because the network of mostly dirt rural roads can’t cope with the volume of rain which has and continues to fall.
In most cases the camps are nothing more than empty school classrooms. Typically that means bare earth or cement floors and unglazed windows. Many have no bedding and some may even have no change of clothing. The camps are fertile ground for those seeking to exploit vulnerable women and children.
More than a week ago, the total number of displaced households exceeded 114,000 – that’s likely to be over half a million people. These poor, mostly uneducated people, are not responsible for the mismanagement and corruption of their country. They aren’t to blame for coronavirus and they didn’t start the far-away war in Ukraine. But they are certainly paying the price!
As one person wrote to me recently, “We are overwhelmed by a world in need.” It is indeed overwhelming.
I give thanks that our Saviour is never overwhelmed, and I am truly grateful for the grace of his people who continually respond in kindness and generosity. As a result of this kindness we are able to make a small but meaningful contribution to the relief effort.
[1] Measured by Gross National Income per capita – https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD?most_recent_value_desc=false
[2] https://reliefweb.int/report/malawi/malawi-ipc-acute-food-insecurity-analysis-june-2022-march-2023-published-august-8-2022#:~:text=Between%20June%20and%20September%202022,and%20reduce%20food%20consumption%20gaps.
Tropical Cyclone Freddy claimed the lives of thousands, while hundreds of thousands more have been displaced by the flood and mudslides. SALT is working to relieve need and share the Gospel among a few of them in the Zomba and Chiradzulu districts. We shot this video during our visit to Lisao Camp, approximately 10 days after the cyclone struck.
It seems like every day we hear fresh stories of desperation. We thank the Lord for moving his people to give so that we are able to respond to some of those most in need.
You can read here about SALT’s interim incident response plan.
Reliefweb report: https://reliefweb.int/report/mozambique/southern-africa-tropical-cyclone-freddy-flash-update-no-7-14-march-2023
We have committed to try to supply food aid to 3 camps for people left homeless by Cyclone Freddy. We would love to be able to do more, but have only limited resources.
An improvement in the weather towards the end of last week allowed Stephen & Harold to access the Lisao Camp to distribute desperately needed food aid.
It’s now two weeks since Cyclone Freddy began to wreak havoc across Southern Malawi. We have been trying to come up with an appropriate incident response plan.
The body count continues to rise. However, it is doubtful if we will ever know the true number of people who perished. Many were washed away by flash-floods or buried in the devasting mud-slides which ripped through the slum townships in Blantyre and elsewhere. A Christian worker known to us through a mutual friend, knows of an entire family of 10 who all perished under one roof.
The need is overwhelming. We have only limited resources.
There are at least three categories of need, and we have decided to respond to each as follows:
In the village group of which Saidi forms a part, around 230 families have experienced total or partial collapse of their homes. Many are still living in what remains of their houses. Some are living with relatives, while others are housed in one of nine camps (mainly in school buildings vacated for the purpose). Some of these camps are in remote areas and very difficult to reach.
We have decided to help two camps in our area, plus a further one in Chiradzulu District, known personally to Brother Harold. We estimate the total number of people to be around 600-800 in total.
Already, we have distributed 30 x 25Kg bags of ufa (maize flour) to Lisao Camp (Chiradzulu), enough for 5KG / family. This will probably be sufficient to survive for 4-5 days. With resources to hand, we believe we can manage to supply a similar amount to the three camps, once every two weeks until the beginning / middle of May.
With greater resources we would be able to make more frequent supplies. We could even include other essential items, like blankets, kitchen & cooking utensils, mosquito nets, and water sanitising tablets. However for the time being, this is what we can manage.
We also plan to assist those affected in our immediate community with a one-off supply of a similar (5KG) quantity. Not much. But something.
This does not take into account the needs of many of our literature distributors who have been affected.
It’s impossible to do anything right now about repairing / rebuilding damaged or destroyed homes, as the rainy season has not yet finished. However, by May, people will be starting to think about rebuilding.
The needs will be immense and we will not be able to help all, or even most. Nevertheless, we will try to assist those who are most vulnerable, especially widows and others with no reasonable expectation of help.
Right now, we have no funds to help with rebuilding, as our priority is to feed the hungry. Experience tells us that we can build a simple house to an acceptable standard for around $1000 / £800. That means with cement mortar / plaster instead of mud. How many people we are able to help will depend on what funds are available.
It’s clear that there will be many survivors who have experienced life-change physical and psychological trauma. For example, we are aware of one lady who lost everything, including her husband and children. She was presumed dead, but was dug out alive from the mud. She is in hospital, the skin scraped off the front of her body, needing multiple fractures repaired. The state provides no care for people like that. When she is discharged from hospital, she has only her frail, elderly mother to care for her. We have undertaken to provide for housing and living assistance (and will be happy for any benefactors willing to partner with us in caring for her). There will be many, many more people with similar needs. For a very long time.
